Laptop barely usable - about to die?

I'm having a nightmare problem that I fear is nearly a dead, and very expensive laptop.

I started getting random freezes a few months back. That then escalated to the screen, and any audio currently being played, distorting, as if the screen looked broken, and freezing. Upon trying to switch back on I would get 3 beeps - I think they were long beeps. I looked on some forums and decided to see if new RAM would help. It didn't. Now, 9 out of 10 times, I can't switch on - I either get stuck between the apple logo screen and the login screen, or get the error in the image below. And 100% of the time it freezes, sometimes immediately, sometimes after an hour. It seems that now the beeping is (I think) different - 6 beeps, 3 short, 3 long - although I'm not sure that I've accurately documented how they've changed over time.

I use the laptop for work so I'm very worried, and it cost £1700 only 18 months ago...

OK so I've just done this and there was lots of errors... If this has solved the problem, firstly thanks so much... And secondly I feel so stupid, Disk Utility should've been one of the first places I looked.

sanjampet and Csound1, I managed to repair the disk (had to reboot while holding cmd+r, it then allowed me to repair the boot disk) and permissions. It now says the disk is fine. However... I've had one crash since, although that made me for unrelated reasons. I guess I'll monitor it over the next few days and see how it goes.

Hmm, I just had this kind of issue with the MBP I gave my son after it had used it on the road for a couple of years. I brought it to Apple, they replaced the HD, (which I knew had died) they also replaced the logic board. Got it home and after it was on for 15+ minutes if you just touched it it would shut down and not restart for about an hour. Brought it back to Apple, they replaced the logic board again, as well as the keyboard and keyboard insulator. Since it has been fine. I wonder if there might be some kind of similar issue happening with yours, Apple diagnosed it for free and then repaired it for a flat fee with a 90 day warranty. I don't know how old your machine is, but you might want to consider this option. The moving it and it crashing, does not sound like a software issue. Reboot and see if it does it again. Wish you the best.

Ash, It cost $330.00, flat rate they replace anything they find wrong. This is what they did for me/my kids MBP, replaced HD (was originally 200GB replaced with a 500GB, replaced logic board,(2 times as the logic board on this first was bad) replaced LCD backlighting (I didn't even know there was problem there) On the second logic board replacement, do to it crashing when moved or touched for that matter, they also replaced the keyboard. 2 trips, one price, as I could not afford to buy him a new machine, although it is now basically a new machine. So, for about 1/3rd the price of getting the cheapest book, here has a MBP that runs perfectly. They also reinstalled the OS, I had to do a ton of updates, and reinstall office. The whole affair took about 10 days. But I was able to get him up and running for considerably less than replacing it. Oh, and the MBP is a 2008 which I used for work and the drive was used hard, as I do production, so long days lots of data, lots of travel. Hope this helps in your decision.

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